#daily achewood | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

arecomicsevengood · 6 years ago

Text

A YEAR OF READING ACKNOWLEDGED MASTERPIECES #3: E.C. SEGAR’S POPEYE

So, while the original idea behind this series was for me to read an acclaimed comic I expect I’ll like but had not yet actually read, or to read something I’d read a little of but not its entirety, covering E.C. Segar’s Popeye is something of a cheat. When Fantagraphics began their reprint series, a roommate had the first volume, of what would eventually be six, and I read that; I later ordered my own copy of volume 3, and I own a copy of The Smithsonian Collection Of Newspaper Comics, which reprints the “Plunder Island” series of Sunday strips covered in volume 4. I enjoyed all of it, but didn’t feel a pressing need to acquire more, and now Volumes 4 and 5 are out of print and command high prices on the secondary market. This motivated me to get a copy of the still-available volume 6, which might seem less appealing because it’s the last stuff Segar did before he died, and health issues led there to be periods of time where the strip was entrusted to his assistants, in sequences not included.

The editors say those strips aren’t good, I’ll take their word for it. Other people have tried to sell other Popeye product, and I’m sure some of it is quite good: There are some people who take pains to point out that the Segar comic strips are not similar to the Fleischer brothers cartoons, but I’m sure those cartoons are good fun, I generally like the stuff that studio produced. I have seen the 1980 Robert Altman movie, starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall, with a screenplay by Jules Feiffer and songs by Harry Nilsson, which is a notorious flop, but with some admirers: Still, it’s a slog, which the comic strip never is. IDW’s comic strip reprint line put out books collection the late eighties/early nineties run of former underground cartoonist Bobby London, what I’ve read of that stuff (just previews online) is unfunny garbage. I think they also were behind reprints of comic books by Bud Sagendorf, and a revival written by Roger Langridge, neither of which I’ve read, though Langridge’s work is always ok; good enough for me to think it’s good, not compelling or transcendent enough for me to spend money on it. It’s all work done by those who have rights to the license, which makes me view it as essentially merchandise, like a pinball game or something. The Segar stuff is where it all comes from.

While other masterpieces of the first half of the twentieth century comics page, like George Herriman’s Krazy Kat or Winsor McKay’s Little Nemo are definitely acquired tastes, Popeye was not only popular enough to make its creator a rich man back in the day, it remains functional as populist entertainment today. I feel pretty “what’s not to like?” about it, and would recommend it to whoever. It’s funny, the characters are good, there’s adventures. The humor is three quarters sitcom style character work and one quarter the sort of silliness that verges on absurdism.

This light touch separates it from the first half of the twentieth century’s “adventure strips” that didn’t age as well, despite having well-done art that would influence generations of superhero artists. Segar’s art isn’t particularly impressive, but every strip tells a joke or two, and even if you don’t laugh at every joke, you’ll appreciate its readability, especially if you’ve ever tried to read a Roy Crane comic, or even Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy. I don’t want to praise E.C. Segar by merely listing works his comics read better than, but it really is notable how many people today are basically trying to do what he did, but are failing at least in part due to not understanding that’s what they’re trying to do. If you want to do a comedic adventure story that becomes popular enough for you to be financially successful, it might be worth reading a volume of Popeye and observing its rhythms. When I was reviewing Perdy a few weeks ago, I was thinking “This basically just wants to be a R-rated Popeye.” I recently found 3/4 of the issues of the Troy Nixey-drawn comic Vinegar Teeth for a quarter each; despite that comic’s high-concept pitch involving Lovecraftian monsters, it would probably have been better if it thought of itself as being a descendant of Popeye, rather than something that could be adapted into a movie. I’ll just phrase it in the format of a popular Twitter meme: Some of you have never read Popeye, and it shows.

Lesson number one, which just sort of emerges naturally from the format of the daily strip, is you’ve got to make jokes, and they can’t just be the same one, over and over again. To that end, you need a cast of characters, who each have their own bit, and who play off each other in various ways. It is easy to see why people don’t do this: Large ensembles grow organically, and most people start telling a story with either a central character or something precisely in mind they want to chronicle. The comic strip, with its long runs originating from a practitioner’s ability to tell a joke, can be a bit freer to stumble onto something that works, without even necessarily having a title character to return to. The collections might be named after Popeye, but the comic strip being collected in these books was called Thimble Theater, which ran for a decade before Popeye showed up and circulation sky-rocketed. For a while, I think the consensus on the early stuff was it was pretty boring and hard to read before Popeye came in and livened the whole thing up, but recently there was a reprint of this earlier material, and I know the dude who reviewed it for The Comics Journal liked it, though I’m sure it’s easy to find someone at The Comics Journal who will like an old comic strip even if it’s bad. Either way, modern cartoonists don’t have Segar’s luxury, or having their work run for a half-disinterested audience until something clicks so much word spreads.

The gag-a-day pace, built around getting into new situations and adventures, itself creates a pressure to be inventive today’s graphic novelists can’t really match. After Popeye is established as a good character, prone to getting into scrapes, Segar can show us the comedy of him caring for a baby. He can also introduce Popeye’s dad, Poopdeck Pappy, that this character looks basically exactly like Popeye but is a piece of shit is a funny idea that would not occur in the early days of planning a project.

One reason why you wouldn’t necessarily do such a design choice is because, if you’re thinking of different media as a way to success, having characters with the exact same silhouette runs counter to the generally accepted rules of animation. Thimble Theatre, as per its name, is based on theater staging, rather than the more expressionist angles of film: We’re looking at characters from the side, usually seeing whoever’s talking in the same panel unless one of them is out of the room. These characters tend to have the same height, basically. Someone once said that looking at Popeye, printed six strips to a page, is kind of like looking at a page of sheet music. It’s not a particularly visually dynamic strip, the amount of black and white on a page is close to unvarying.

This is why I don’t believe in prescriptivism, or a suggestion of rules: I’m pretty sure that Popeye works because it’s not working super-hard to be visually interesting. This would be the number two lesson of what there is to learn from Popeye. I think this transparency in style is what allows this comedy/adventure hybrid to work, though I know others would blanch at this. It’s going for a big audience, and while I think this visual approach serves that end, I know why others, especially those who’ve been struck by later superhero comics or manga, would see visual excitement as the best way to achieve that goal. The audience that read newspaper comics wasn’t necessarily adept at following visual storytelling, and the sort of relationship that newspaper strips could have with a wider readership is not going to be achievable now. The folks that ride for Segar these days are mostly alt-comics people, like Sammy Harkham or Kevin Huizenga, who aren’t attempting the sort of popular entertainment extravaganzas he trafficked in.

Reading Popeye feels like reading, basically, which is a nice, contemplative experience, that not all comics can capture. I read a few pages of it before bed. Obviously, this pace is not how people consumed it in its heyday, but the pace people took it in at, a strip a day, is even more deliberate and steady, and I think, was crucial to its popularity. For a comic to be popular, it has to have characters that are interesting, obviously; there is probably no better way for an audience to build a relationship with fictional characters than over extended periods of time. This speed corresponds to the pace it was created at, one that now seems insanely luxurious to anyone whose workflow is dictated by the internet’s demand for content. It’s a total crowdpleaser, but it existed at a time where crowds could slowly gather. Popeye’s a popular entertainment from an era of reading, listening to the radio, going to plays or movies. It holds up, owing to a basic pleasantness we can understand as low stakes, and that’s helped along by the restraint of the art. It’s telling a story. It’s not a farce, crowded with visual jokes, and it’s not dictated by characters’ emoting either. I love a visually expressive art style, but here it’s important that the visuals remain “on-model,” reinforcing the stability of the characterizations. This sort of thing is also evident in Chris Onstad’s Achewood, which I would argue is the preeminent 21st century character-driven comic strip, with an audience that feels relatively “wide” rather than pointedly “niche.”

Lesson number three to how to make a popular comic is the thought I find myself thinking all the time, which is “Everyone needs to chill out.” The number one impediment to making entertainment that just quietly works is the desire to stand out and make a name for yourself as quickly as possible. This is similar to how the number one impediment to a peaceful and contented life is the demands of a failing capitalism where we are all competing for a shrinking pile of resources. To read these books now is a luxury, an indulgence, and while I don’t much go in for those, reading older comic strips carries with it this sort of nostalgic appeal for an era where it didn’t feel like everything was screaming at you for your attention all the time. As broad as Popeye is, it now possesses a certain dignity, owing to this dislocation in time from its origin. I don’t know if this felt like a feature at the time. I do think that if you are an artist that wants to be successful now, you should do what you can for the sort of circumstances that allow for genuine, long-lasting success to build, which involves a certain degree of permission to fail. Mainstream comics companies, with their mentality of “we’re going to print hundreds of comics a month, in hopes some find a niche large enough to be briefly profitable we can then try to milk for their last dollar and they quickly become exhausted,” act against this. As in a garden, there needs to be space for things to take root and grow.

7 notes · View notes

sterwood · 7 years ago

Note

it's wild to see how so much of your content is relatively high-effort (you don't seem to just make claims and make it your audience's task to figure out what the fuck you're saying) and even wilder how homestuckposting is the exception to that. I fundamentally disagree that it's good, and I feel like if you had a good argument to the contrary you'd have posted it by now.

This is such a weird ask to me, since I’ve barely been postinganything of substance lately given that I’ve been so damn busy with grad schoolstuff. (And the stuff I’ve been reading, thinking about, etc., wouldn’t makefor very good posts here, since it’s a lot of stuff about Rawls and pragmatismand I just...don’t care, lmao.)

But at the same time: thank you! That’s a very nice thing to see,that one’s effort is recognized even if the culmination of that effort isdisagreed with.

As far as the homestuck stuff goes though, part of the reason Ihaven’t given any justification of it is that I don’t really see it needing anyjustification, insofar as I’m not often making claims about how great it isoutside of some obviously hyperbolic claims. It’s mostly a private interest,forged out of a depression-fueled quick-read of the comic and the fact that thecomic appeals to a bunch of personal interests/themes/etc. I do think it’sactually great, but I haven’t put forth any effort to flesh out that claim or convinceothers of it in any serious way, mostly because I figure that no one cares.

I’ll attempt to spell out a few reasons that I think it’s very good,or at least important, but I want to recognize at the outset that I’m at adisadvantage in talking about this. You say that you ‘fundamentallydisagree that it’s good’ and that I probably have some ready made argument ofwhy it is, in fact, good. Since you’re anonymous, there’s no set standardbetween us for evaluating this claim (good/bad how?),and so I kind of just have to jump in with some generalities about the comic.If you’re serious with your intent in sending this message though (and I thinkyou are, since you started out with a compliment that shows me that you’veprobably given a looking over at my blog and even, dare I say, follow me onhere), then feel free to message me after with something more specificabout why you don’t think it’s good, so at least there’scommon set of propositions that we’re working with (”I think it’s bad becauseit’s overly convoluted” to which I’d disagree; “I think it’s bad becauseof the whole tumblr parody which was really reactionary” to which I’d agree;etc.) and we could move from there.

Let’s move on though. (This will be along post, and I apologize, especially for those on mobile.)

Reasons why Homestuck is At LeastImportant

There’s two major reasons why I thinkhomestuck (HS) is important, or at least should be regarded as a significantmedia product. Firstly, I think it’s a unique contribution to what mediaproducts can do on the internet;secondly, I think it’s important by virtue of what it contributed to mediaculture generally. Note, in this section I’m not strictly saying why I thinkthe comic is good, but only why I think it’s worth paying attention to,especially if you’re a media studies student, say, or someone interested incultural studies generally or whatever. But let’s turn to both of those points.

A quick reflection: I remember howfrustrated I was growing up when I would read articles online that were aboutmovies or paintings or some piece of visual culture that would only pointtowards the media product. I was frustrated, because there seemed to be noreason to simply talk about mediaproducts when you could actually incorporate them into your discussions. Whyonly talk about a scene in a movie, say, when you could include a clip of thatscene in your essay to provide more exacting context? Media productions andcommentaries weren’t simply bound to text, but writers and creators tended to restrictthemselves to this without need. (There are some reasons for this, especiallywith the state of the internet 9 years ago or so [when homestuck began],principally that pictures and videos loaded slowly and would be overlycumbersome. Still, I was frustrated at the unrealized potential.)

I was similarly frustrated by the typeof content that popped up in most webcomics that I was reading at the time. In2010, I believe, I took an on-campus job working in a geology lab. There waslittle work to be done, and, being nineteen, I stupidly blew off the smallamount of work I had. Even in blowing off that work, though, I still needed tooccupy my time while I was working in the office, and for whatever reason Itook to reading a lot of webcomics. I read all of Questionable Content, xkcd,Diesel Sweeties, Achewood, and (most important for my appreciation of HS,coincidentally) Goats. I didn’t actually read HS at this time (that didn’thappen until 2015), but this set the scene for eventually reading it. And whilereading all of these comics, despite liking them, I was sometimes frustratedhow they still read like traditional comics. It was hard to see how thesecomics were webcomics: I couldn’t seeanything that made them particularly different from normal comics, except forwhere they happened to be located.

In this context, Homestuck is the firstpiece of media that I’m aware of (and certainly the largest) which actually expandedthe ways that a comic could operate. Instead of a series of panels with textincorporated, Homestuck is primarily single panel pages with lots of textattributed to them underneath (of course, this barrage of text is also why manydon’t care for the comic). But it is also a series of flash videos, embeddedvideo games, youtube videos, parody accounts (like the DeviantArt one), albums,etc. It really is astoundingly expansive. Again, this is neither good nor bad,but is a reason for its importance. This is the first media production that I’maware of that attempted to take up the internet as a medium for communicationin its full power (even including user generated actions up through parts ofAct 5). This, alone, would make Homestuck worth paying attention to, even ifonly antagonistically.

Now for the second (shorter) point. Isaw someone joke once that HS is ‘the comic of the Obama era’ since it spansthe whole of his presidency, more-or-less (2009-2016). In that time, it createda *massive* internet presence that simultaneously influenced the content,themes, style, and other aspects of many diverse media forms (the wholeUndertale experience is just one gigantic branch sprouting from this Yggdrasilof memes known as Homestuck). It’s impossible to account for the massive impactthat Andrew Hussie has had on the content and form of the internet as weexperience it today (I mean, for one minor aspect of this, just look atSB&HJ and how those aesthetics have informed a massive amount of memecreation).

In this sense, I think it’s impossibleto regard HS as anything other than important. The pure, impossible to measurecultural impact it has had on media artifacts that we enjoy daily—even if theydon’t seem connected—is hard to overstate. For this reason alone, readingthrough some of HS is probably something worth doing (again, even if it’s onlydone antagonistically). To put this somewhat polemically, at the very leastHomestuck should be read as many novels are: not as a great artistic work, butas a window into a certain kind of cultural logic operating during a given timeperiod. And if that is the approach taken, then it’s hard to try and movepassed HS: I can think of no other media product that has had more of asingular impact, more breadth, and more userinteraction than HS has had on popular culture (except for, perhaps, HarryPotter, though that’s in an entirely different way and also—here’s,potentially, my real polemic—HS is much better).

Now on to some reasons why HS may, infact, actually be good.

Reasons why Homestuck is Good

I’ll break this into a few (hopefullyshort) themes: pacing, conversations, villainy, coherence, characterization, and (most controversially) the ending. (I would urge you—thecollective ‘you’ that may have been foolish enough to get this far—to not readthat last section if you haven’t read the comic. I’m trying to keep thisspoiler free, by and large, because part of my purpose in writing this is tosuggest that you should read it aswell [keep in mind Kant’s claim that aesthetic judgements are normativejudgements, lmao], though I think the ending is too important not to tough onto some extent.)

Pacing.HS does one of the oddest and most interesting things I’ve seen with pacing inany sort of media production. Perhaps this is a reason why some people haven’tenjoyed the comic, but it’s one of the reasons that I find it so thrilling toread, even on my multiple re-reads. The comic tends to move at a snail’s pace,with conversations that drag on and don’t advance the plot much (but they dodevelop characters, so it’s notuseless dialog by any means). This pace is enjoyable, but can get frustratingwhen you can see elements of the story building up to…something. Then, in abrilliant flash, the story erupts with tons of action: many diverse strands ofthe story are woven together into a single tapestry, lending coherence,consistency, and progress to the story. And the contrast between the slowtextual pace and the hyperspeed of the flash videos. The most obvious case ofthis is [S] Cascade, though I’d rather focus on [S] Make Her Pay, because Ithink it’s one of the strongest moments in the comic. (You can see the videohere, if you’re interested: https://www.homestuck.com/story/2578.A warning, though: I believe the video still autoplays, and it has music, sojust beware before opening that link.)

I don’t think I’m spoiling much bypointing to this flash video, since I think that almost everyone that has heardof homestuck at least knows that characters often referred to as ‘the Trolls’play an important part. They show up at the beginning of Act 5, which isperhaps a quarter of the way through the comic (given that [S] Cascade isnearly the halfway point). Their entrance into the story marks a kind of ‘reboot’to the story, where similar themes, tropes, etc. that were built in earlieracts are redeployed with these new characters. Further, it marks a definiteincrease in the complexity of thestory, given that it focuses on 12 difference characters, rather than 4, as thestory had done so far. The whole of Act 5 up until [S] Make Her Pay had beentext-based storytelling: detailing the complicated and twisted history of these‘troll’ characters, their involvement in the ‘game’ that forms the basis forthe whole of HS, and exploring new depths for the comic. But it is alsoslow-moving: the comic even makes reference to this pace in multiple partswhere it coyly talks about how we, the readers, ‘don’t have time’ to exploresome such gag, or go into depth about some story point, or to develop a flashanimation for some aspect of the story (e.g. Karkat’s Strife! with his lusus). This all is cut through with theappearance in the story of [S] Make Her Pay, which weaves the whole of Act 5Act 1 together, filling in many gaps of history that were left intentionallyunexplored at that point, and advancing the story by leaps and bounds. Therhetorical and affective dimensions of this contrast are hard to emphasizeenough: going slowly through all this history, all this plot, all this teen drama, in one of the longesttext-only sequences in the comic, only to have that pace flipped upside down bya single short video that connects so many disparate strands is really,well…exhilarating. It’s one of the things that makes the comic so intenselyenjoyable, dynamic, and, I think, worthwhile. I’ve never seen another piece ofmedia do such wonderful things with pacing.

Conversations.Due to this varied pacing, the majority of the comic is comprised of longdialogues. These dialogues have strong rules of how they’re allowed to beconducted, though. Conversations (until a certain element is introduced intothe story) have to take place through some medium: through a chat client(similar to AOL/MSN messengers), dreams, sprites, hand-written messages, etc.No direct conversations can happen between two people. There’s always somethinggetting in the way of conversations. I’ve never seen anything other than HScapture this element of conversations in the 21st century,especially without taking some condescending tone about how ‘screens rule ourlives’ or something. The fact that all the speech in the comic is mediated bysome form of media isn’t meant as a critique, but an accurate representation ofmany actual dialogues that happen. Perhaps this is only a good part of HSbecause it appeals to some of my sensibilities, so I’ll keep this short, butit’s an aspect that makes me enjoy the comic a lot. Growing up in the late90s/early 00s (I graduated high school in 2009, for a sense of my timelinehere), and having forged many friendships—even with friends I knew‘IRL’—through similar chat clients and such, this aspect of the comic simplyseems very real and intimate to me. I know that weird sense of closeness withpeople that you only, or primarily, know through text, and the kind of yearningthat can engender—and I think HS captures that very well.

Villainy.In sending your message, I assume you were prompted by the post I rebloggedthat mentioned that HS features many of the standard tropes of a literary epic.Of those kinds of tropes, one that wasn’t mentioned (and which tends to beparticular to post-1940s epics or pseudo-epics) is the presence of some kind ofabsolute evil entity which corrupts and destroys beyond any realm ofrationality. A figure of ‘radical evil’ if you will: an evil which is cold,calculating, perhaps even intelligent in many respects, but which displays akind of horrifying excess of humanness which is warped into some kind ofabominable evil. HS has such a figure and fleshes him out very well, and healso ends up being one of the best characters in the story (best in the senseof developed, engaging, important, etc. – not ‘good,’ obviously): Caliborn.

Caliborn (and LE) is a reallyinteresting villain because, as Dave mentions at one point, he hasn’t had muchof a direct evil influence over any aspect of the story (“what kind ofvillain is someone you never met who hardly did anything evil to you or yourfriends directly/or even to anyone in your universe for that matter other thanthrough some vague insidious influence/who even is this guy and why should ihate him” (6385)). By and large, he’s been absent fromany direct engagement with any character in the story, and yet his evil isomnipresent. As his constantly tagline goes “he is already here.”

The major way in which Caliborn is evilis through excessively narcissistic he is, how thoroughly self-involved, andhow he desires to make his will reality in all instances. He bends the fabricof time around himself to propagate and ensure his own existence: hisimmortality is guaranteed simply because he will to continue existing. His evilis systemic: it’s the very (genetic) code of the gaming session that all themain characters of the story occupy, and all of its other instances as well.

Further, there’s a level of ambivalentcruelty mixed with enjoyment that we get in Caliborn’s character that’s hard tosee matched in any other literary figure that comes to my mind. Yes, much ofhis dialogue is full of jokes and statements that make him seem very, verystupid, arrogant, etc. But there are a few scenes where we get a sense that heis a kind of primordial, absolute evil, who sees the very purpose of hisexistence as that of wrecking pain and terror across many instances ofuniverses. Two such scenes suffice here. (Potential spoilers follow in the restof this section.) The first is from when Caliborn enters his own session:consumed with hatred for the only other living being he’s known (albeitdirectly), he kills off a part of himself and awakens with joy. He thenproceeds to remove his own leg forcefully (that kind of dedication through painis frightening), and initiate the game. While everything is being sucked into ablack hole behind him, while the whole of his world and life are beingdestroyed around him, he is seen smiling serenely with his eyes closed. He cansmile, because he knows that this is the beginning of his dominance overeverything: this destruction is a prelude to him carrying out his will todestroy everything forever and in all ways. It is, quite simply, chilling.

The second scene happens in a shortconversation with Jake. This comment comes across almost as a joke, but itreally highlights the depth of evil he occupies. In talking about what it meansto be a ‘Lord’ in terms of his class, and how he came to recognize hispotential within this class, he says that “NOW I KNOW. THAT WHAT ITTAKES FOR ME TO LEARN AND GROW STRONGER./IS EXCRUCIATING EFFORT./SO I HAVE ACHOICE. WHICH IS TO EITHER BE WEAK./WHEN WEAKNESS IS COMPLETELYUNACCEPTABLE./OR TO SUFFER. FOREVER. UNTIL NO ONE ELSE EXISTS.” (5671). Despitethe presentation (Caliborn’s manner of speaking often undercuts the severity ofwhat he’s saying, but it’s important for a reader to keep this in mind), thisidea that Caliborn is willing to endure infinite suffering and pain to ensurethat his will is carried out—a will that desire the utter elimination of allthings throughout all of existence—is honestly terrifying. He is a characterwhose evil isn’t marked by any singular action (again, as Dave mentioned), butby a relentless drive. To be a bit obtuse here, Caliborn is basically theLacanian ‘lamella,’ especially in the sense that the lamella “doesn’t exist,but persists.” Caliborn suffers beyond life and death, as a half-dead creature(I mean, to really put the point explicitly here, the lamella is a half-dead,abject excess of life, and Caliborn is a skull monster who through the sheerforce of will ensures the necessity of his continued existence): he is evilincarnate, and I’ve never seen such a radical evil presented in a better waythan through HS. This is honestly one of the biggest literary achievements ofHS, and that’s why I’m dwelling on it at length. But let’s continue

Coherence.This may seem like an odd category, since I believe that many see HS asexcessively chaotic and unstructured. I thoroughly disagree and thinking thatthe overwhelming coherence of this nearly decade-long story is part of whatmakes it so good. This is apparent in the many jokes and themes that arecarried through the comic, even at a distance of thousands of panels (twoimmediate examples jump out at me: the joke about how Sassacre’s text could‘kill a cat’ that’s realized after about 4500 pages, or the ‘bleating like agoat for ironic purposes’ gag that’s realized in about the same span). Further,this coherence is built into the overall structure of the comic: the fact thatthe first half of the comic takes place within about a day’s time whereas thelatter half takes place over 3 years (punctuated at the end by a lot of actionat the end) shows that the general structure of the comic follows the patternof pacing mentioned above. There is a lot more I could point to that would showjust how wonderfully coherent the whole HS story is, but I’m not sure if that’sa useful exercise upfront. It’d be more useful to talk about coherence inresponse to a dispute over whether some aspect of HS was coherent or not—absentthat, there doesn’t seem to be much of a point in detailing such here, otherthan to note that I do believe that the comic is generally very well puttogether (with the ending being a big bit of punctuation on this point).

Characterization.Andrew Hussie did two primary things with characterization that I appreciateand find worthwhile in the comic. The first thing he did was give a lot ofspace for characterization. We end up knowing a ton of information about thecharacters in the comic and a good 90% of it is relevant in some way to theplot (some of it is just interesting details, which is more or less fine whenyou have a character driven story where the characters are likable). Thesecharacters are dynamic and fully fleshed out in almost all cases (Nepeta is probablythe one major exception to this, though she even got a bit more development inthe end that pulled her away from just being a lolcat meme). Sure, any goodstory should have characterization like this, but I think the length ofhomestuck allows it to happen in really supple and subtle ways: the majority ofcharacters in the story are multi-faceted characters who develop in believableways over time that come into conflicts that sometimes just aren’t resolved.There’s also the willingness to have characters that are just irredeemablyhorrible people, without trying to shoehorn some kind of redemption arc in(Eridan is a nice example of this: he’s a thoroughly detestable and horribleperson, and there is no possible way to see him in a good light in a fairreading of the text [the HS fandom, which is not on trial here and should beexcluded from most all of these statements, has tried to make him into asympathetic character time and time again, and this is only possible becausethey’re reading the comic badly]). Further, and lastly on this point, due tothe depth of characterization, there’s also a lot of great between-characterinteractions in the comic: not great because they’re funny or witty orwhatever, but because they show the depth of character and work and a mutualrecognition of that depth between characters. The speech that Dirk gives aboutRoxy before their session’s versions of Derse and Prospit were destroyed is agreat example of this (and one of the greatest tragedies of the comic, from areader standpoint, is that Dirk never gets to tell Roxy any of that directly,at least not in any manner that we see).

Secondly, and this is heavily relatedto the first point, the depth of characterization that Hussie gives to theplayers in HS allows him to start with kind of obvious and one-dimensionalstereotypes of characters and morph them into something fully fleshed. And hedoes this not by simply inverting the roles of those stereotypes of something(which is common in a lot of ‘ironic’ pieces of media that try and overturn themajor tropes working within a given genre) but by fully fleshing outcharacters. I think this may be most apparent in someone like Dave. He beganthe comic by being a stereotype of some kind of hipster-bro, and almost all ofhis jokes, interactions, and conversations revolved around this stereotype. Itwas even folded into his personal mythology: because he’s the coolest, the mostcapable, etc., he’s the one that’s ‘meant to’ take down LE when all is said anddone. Slowly though, through confronting the stupidity that his mythologyforces him into (like having welsh swords as key items, for some reason) andalso confronting the death of his ‘bro’ and the feelings that stirred in him,he comes much more of a fully fleshed character. And by the end of the entirecomic, as he’s confronting issues of cross-cultural exchange, his ownrelationship to his abusive upbringing, his conflicted feelings about how tosituate his sexuality, etc., Dave has easily become one of the most thoroughlyrealized characters in the entirety of HS. That’s a hard thing to do when you’restarting with stereotypes of characters (which, it should be added, wasnecessary given the types of stories and games that Hussie was trying to riffoff of in developing HS) and end up with something thoroughly real, and HSshould be commended for being able to do such on many different fronts.

[I was going to add another piece aboutthe nice temporal dynamics of the comic, taking place originally over a day andthen over the course of three years, but this is already long enough and I’vementioned this part of HS a bit above, so I’ll let it be.]

TheEnding. I had a literature professor onceremark that the most conservative part of novels is the ending, because itforecloses on all of the openness and contingency at work during the otherparts of the novel. This is true for most pieces of media, and is why theendings of most things are bad (I’m replaying Mass Effect right now and it’sreminded me of two of my least favorite endings in media ever: that game, andBattlestar Galactica). I think HS, in many ways, gets around this problem.

To celebrate the ending of HS iscontentious, I know. It was mostly hated among the fandom. But I really thinkthat the ending is one of the most flawlessly executed pieces of the wholecomic. Many people were mad at the ending because it ‘left so many questions’open—but this is precisely why it’s good. It allows us to see that thecharacters continue to exist in some form or another, that their relationshipsdevelop, but it doesn’t answer every question that the comic poses, nor does iteven attempt to give us a rubric for evaluating those questions in anydefinitive way. Further, the ending is *genuinely surprising.* In a comic that’srevolved around a plot point of a ‘final boss’ that must be faced andvanquished, the comic surprisingly ends without this boss being defeated in anysimple manner. Instead, the main characters simply escape the confines of the ‘game’that they’ve been playing: a game that has brought them isolation, tragedy, andendless fear. The major resolution of the story comes through the charactersjust being allowed to live for a while, to enjoy their lives. That’s why theending text for the story isn’t “and they lived happily ever after” (or somesimilar cliché), but “Thanks for playing”—a sign that the worst is in the pastand that the lives of these characters is now truly beginning in a way that’s totallyup to them. That’s why, in the afterward,we get a snapchat story that shows various pieces of the lives of these characters,up through John’s 21st birthday. It was the best solution to such acomplex, diverse, and nearly decade-spanning comic: to allow the characters tohave some space to actually live on.

It was also the single best way ofdealing with this ‘final boss’—Lord English. In his form as Caliborn, as quotedabove, he’s a character that’s willing to suffer forever if it means that hehas complete control over the existence of the whole of reality. The best wayto ‘destroy’ such a character isn’t to have them killed (that would simply markan endpoint to their terror, but LE wouldn’t experience it as anything bad, torturous,etc.), but to have them trapped within a dimension all to themselves. By theend of the comic, LE is trapped in the game, with no means of escape, and isbound to the rules and logic of such a game. Sure, he’s omnipotent within thatsphere of influence, but all the characters have moved on to something else.This assigns him to a fate worse than death: to suffer forever without, throughthat suffering, attaining control and power over others. In this sense, I feelthat the ending that Hussie designed for HS is the only reasonable ending: andpulling off such a wonderful ending to such a long and complex comic is quitean achievement—especially since, as I’ve mentioned, this ending didn’t simply ‘tieloose ends’ or anything. It resolved the central tension of the story while(intentionally) leaving other tensions and questions unresolved and unanswered.It was—and this is rare for most any piece of media—a fully realized,thoughtful, and incredible ending to a story that I find to be one of the bestI have read in very many, many years.

And so that’s it. I was going toinclude another section about how HS is at least not-bad where I list common reasons that the comic is seen as badand show that they miss the mark, but this is long enough as is (9 pages inword). So I’ll leave this here. This isn’t a total justification of why I likehomestuck or why I think it’s worth paying attention to, I haven’t addressedmany of the major points, but I think I’ve made the case, at least partially,for why I think the comic might be worth taking a look into. Beyond that, I don’treally know what I can do, given that I’m only working with the message placed inmy inbox. But considering that most don’t care….that’s probably more thanenough, lmao.

#I got kind of tired near the end #hence why the responses start going less in depth (whoops)#homestuck #mine #Anonymous

10 notes · View notes

humanoid-lovers · 7 years ago

Photo

Wheeeeee !!! Not what I expected in an excellent way... Frankly I purchased this through the "people who bought what you are about to buy" feature on the 'Zon and after my initial surprise at the incredible amalgam of forms and styles tossed together into this gem a new entry on the "Best Ever Short Issue Graphic Novel" list was made. Go to Amazon

I'm pretty sure most of the people who would buy this ... I'm biased, because I'm a huge fan of Achewood. That being said, I'm pretty sure most of the people who would buy this product are also fans. The thing this book has that the comics don't is a lot of interesting extras. It has some background info about the history of the Fight, some excerpts of character writing about Ray's fight as it's happening and some "recipes" in the back of the book. It's very immersive, if you have an interest in the deep world of Achewood. It's a classic. Go to Amazon

The first of the Achewood series. If you're a fan of irreverent humor (think "The Daily Show*" or "The Colbert Report"), this will have you in stitches. It's about a group of people in the Township of Achewood, a bit of a nowheresville, but the characters represent pretty much every kind of person, and in the way each represents themselves, riffs on said kind of person. No doubt you'll identify with SOMEONE...but don't worry. The fun is not necessarily MEAN to anyone, just don't go into the book feeling flawless. Go to Amazon

Its only missing one thing. After reading most of the reviews for this book it seemed that the ones that gave it a poor review had NEVER read Achewoode before. Why would you buy a hard cover book of a free online comic if you had never read the comic before? Go to Amazon

Five Stars get the whole series!!! 3 in all! Go to Amazon

A damn fine read A very handsome product that looks great on a bookshelf or coffee table. It also has an excellent story withing it pages. The story of life long friends Ray and Roast Beef having the biggest adventure of their lives is full of laughs, gaffes, beatings, and lessons in true friendship. Onstad's writing is both clever and warped, and his art is perfectly suited to the material. He can go from bloody fights to awkward teenage moments in a few panels with great ease. A wonderful read for those of us who love watching cartoon cats beat the hell out of each other. Go to Amazon

How could anyone be disappointed? Chris Onstad is to comics what Little Feat is to Rock & Roll - the best that no one has heard of. Go to Amazon

Hilarious and Obscure This book really epitomizes the Achewood lore; a classic battle between man and himself... and thousands of other men looking to claim the title of the champ. It's action, it's comedy, it's liquor and grocery store rotisserie chicked. Go to Amazon

Two Stars Greatest arc, written on greatest paper Insanely Good Not exactly knocked out A great Achewood Story Tad Overated Find a Copy and Laugh Yourself Silly More depth than you could imagine

0 notes

dailyachewood · 2 years ago

Text

the party: I dare you to pick one panel from this strip March 18, 2002

#like it's impossible #achewood #daily achewood #ray #africa by toto #03182002 #the party #like I assume this is part of the party series?#classic strip #CLASSIC FUCKING STRIP

27 notes · View notes

nathanielwharton · 8 years ago

Text

My 2016 in Pop Culture

Same deal as last year. This is what meant the most to me last year in pop culture.

Top Forty Things From 2016

40. Penny Dreadful Season 3 This turned out to be the final season of the show, and while it feels a little rushed to a conclusion in the end, the majority of the season was another wonderfully ghoulish ride. With the characters scattered at the end of the second season, the third season adds a weird western flavor to the Penny Dreadful world, finally pulls the trigger on introducing Dracula, and once again offers a stellar Eva Green showcase (an invaluable service). I'll miss this one.

39. Achewood Returns As with Bloom County last year, Achewood made something of a surprise return in 2016. Though updates have again petered out, it was a real treat to spend some time with those characters once a week.

38. Gravity Falls Series Finale Disney XD finally dribbled out the last Gravity Falls episode in early 2016. And boy, the wait was worth it. The ending was as funny, strange, mysterious, and ultimately moving as the show was at its best.

37. The Witch This was a movie to sink into, with an immersive atmosphere and a creeping sense of unease that became almost overwhelming by the end. And then in its final moments, that unease bloomed into something thrilling. Terrific movie.

36. The Fireman Joe Hill's latest novel, and it's another rich, engrossing yarn with good characters. Always excited to see what he's cooked up, and this one didn't disappoint.

35. Galavant Season 2 I just really loved this show and am sorry to see it go after a second season that did fun stuff with the characters and avoided the pacing hiccups of the first season.

34. The Jungle Book/Pete's Dragon It seems like it is going to become a running theme in these lists that I express concern about Disney's "make live-action versions of our classic library" strategy (it can seem pointless, and certainly seems like a dead end road if they're not generating new original films in addition) and then end up loving the resulting films. And I loved both of these ones, finding them dazzling to look at and, ultimately, moving.

33. Duck the Halls: A Mickey Mouse Christmas Special I've loved the Mickey Mouse shorts that Paul Rudish has been doing for Disney Television Animation, and this first half-hour episode they made as a Christmas special maintained the style and energy I've enjoyed in the shorts and applied them to a Christmas story with new music and a focus on Donald Duck. So of course I loved it.

32. The Shallows/Nerve/Don't Breathe/The Boy It was a great year for smaller genre fare. All four of these accomplish exactly what they set out to do, and do it with wit, style, and craft that exceeds what you might expect from movies like these. They were also all GREAT audience movies.

31. Paper Girls It was a good year for "kids on bikes," and this comic series is a really great entry in the genre. I wasn't prepared for some of the twists and turns in the story, and I'm pretty interested to see where it goes.

30. Grease: Live Holy smokes. This was a dazzling adrenaline rush of live television. It was a fun mounting of the show, with nice performances, and while some of the staging and performances occasionally felt strange when they too closely seemed to be doing karaoke of the movie version, it was mostly a really fun and thrilling piece of television. A best-case scenario for the new TV-musical boom.

29. Archie Comics Mark Waid's Archie continued to be really fantastic, and the new Betty & Veronica, Josie & the Pussycats, and Reggie & Me all got off to excellent starts. But my favorite of the lineup is probably Jughead, now written by Ryan North (of my beloved Daily Dinosaur Comics). It's a truly perfect match of writer and subject.

28. Hell or High Water A great hang-out movie, with characters and actors I just loved watching interact, but it also features a story with opportunity for both excitement and commentary. A great western.

27. Kubo and the Two Strings Somewhere between the wonderful The Boxtrolls and the dazzling Kubo and the Two Strings, Laika solidified their image as a can't-miss animation studio for me. Each time out they come up with something different, but they share a few general qualities: they are gorgeous, they are funny and off-kilter, and they are unlike anything else currently on offer in American animation.

26. Ash vs. Evil Dead Season 2 This was, in many ways, an improvement on the already great first season. It explores a number of other horror subgenres through the Evil Dead lens, ramps up the thrills and carnage even further, and gives Bruce Campbell even more to play. And it features perhaps the most disgusting sequence in any Evil Dead.

25. Star Trek Beyond The third film in the Kelvin timeline, Beyond also functioned (by default, as the only new filmed Star Trek this year) as the 50th Anniversary celebration of the franchise. Luckily, they came prepared with the best of this new series of films. The crew continues to be as wonderful as ever (and the film finds opportunity to pair them up and give us some excellent character moments). And the story works as a nice interrogation of some Trek principles, proving them fresh and sadly relevant as the real world took a turn for the isolationist and regressive.

24. Arrival I wrote about this one for SportsAlcohol.com.

23. “Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster” The X-Files revival was, appropriately for the original series, a mixed bag with the good, the bad, and the nutty all jumbled together. But there was a clear highlight, and as I'd hoped, Darin Morgan basically justified the entire revival in his one episode. His "Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster" was funny and weird and moving, in the best tradition of his previous X-Files work. It was packed with winks and references, Duchovny and Anderson were clearly having a ball, and interestingly it seemed to offer a different perspective (or even a response or rebuttal) to the main thematic concerns of his episodes from the original series. At the conclusion of his episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" (one of my favorite episodes of TV, full stop), Chung narrates, "Then there are those who care not about extraterrestrials, searching for meaning in other human beings. Rare or lucky are those who find it. For although we may not be alone in the universe, in our own separate ways on this planet, we are all alone." Though he was known for writing the funny ones, this loneliness, this belief in the impossibility of real human connection, forms the emotional underpinning that grounds Morgan's X-Files episodes. And his episodes are often hilariously critical of Mulder. So it threw me for a loop when "Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster" was surprisingly sympathetic toward him, and ends with this simple exchange between Mulder and the titular monster. Guy Mann - I don't mean to get too personal, but this has been a real trying time for me. I've been through a lot. But just having someone like you to... Look, what I'm trying to say is, I'm glad to have met you. Mulder - Like... Likewise.

22. Star Wars I guess this works as a proof of concept for Disney being able to sustain this new pace of Star Wars media. The comics continued to be generally excellent. Star Wars Rebels dug a little deeper with their own characters and made canny use of characters like Ahsoka, Darth Vader, and Grand Admiral Thrawn. Aftermath: Life Debt, the second in the trilogy of novels telling the story of the immediate...aftermath of Return of the Jedi, offered some cool glimpses of what characters both important and obscure were up to in that time period, and also develops some intriguing story threads that look to pay off in the next novel and in Episode VIII & IX. Catalyst, the novel that provided backstory for some of the main characters in Rogue One, was also one of the most enjoyable. And the publishing highlight of the year was Bloodline, the novel focusing on Leia Organa's exit from the new galactic government she'd fought to establish and her role in the origin of the Resistance in the new trilogy. And Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was a proof of concept all on its own, building some real goodwill for me toward the notion of these Star Wars spin off films. It offered up a new batch of characters that I liked, a cool story with some interesting Star Wars world building, and some rad filmmaking with a bunch of iconic images.

21. Weiner This documentary might play more like a horror movie after the 2016 election season, but it played like a raucous audience-participation comedy with the New York audience I saw it with. Weiner is an incredibly fascinating subject, and the movie has surprisingly intimate access through some rough times for Weiner, his campaign, and his family.

20. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping I wrote about this one for SportsAlcohol.com.

19. The BFG Steven Spielberg adapting a wonderful Roald Dahl novel with a screenplay by Melissa Mathison? Yep, this was an easy guess to be one of my favorites of the year, and that's exactly what it was. As with most Dahl adaptations, it finds a little more sentiment in the story than I found on the page, but it's a charming, wondrous marvel. And Mark Rylance's BFG is just perfect.

18. Beyonce's "Lemonade" on HBO I don't know if you'd call it a movie or a collection of videos or something else altogether, but it was beautiful and moving and very special. Any insight I could offer would pale compared to the great writing it inspired by others, but I found it dazzling.

17. Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life I really loved this revival. It was full of checklist hitting and Palladino self-indulgences, but I even mostly loved that stuff and was pretty into the stories they chose to tell. And, as is the goal of a revival like this, I loved getting to see all of the characters again. Sure, I'd have loved to spend more time with some of them, but I was pretty satisfied overall with the balance we got. And I loved the ending.

16. The Handmaiden I wrote about this for SportsAlcohol.com.

15. Hail, Caesar! I wrote about this for the SportsAlcohol.com list.

14. Green Room I could describe this literally as a white-knuckle thriller because it had me actually clutching my armrests when I was watching it. Impeccably crafted and astonishingly intense. And a perfect final moment.

13. Marvel Cinematic Universe It was another good year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, despite some disappointments (Agent Carter had a delightful second season and was summarily cancelled, Luke Cage and Daredevil both started out great and petered out to varying degrees). Agents of SHIELD continues to be a lot of fun (I don't know if it gets better and better in an uninterrupted curve, but I look forward to it each week). Doctor Strange was super cool, introducing new characters I'm excited to follow in future adventures and providing a really dazzling experience in the theater. But the highlight this year was surely Captain America: Civil War. A really exciting example of how this shared universe, long-form storytelling can pay off, this was a great movie. I loved the characters, both returning and brand new (psyched to see Spider-Man and Black Panther in their own movies), and I found the story to be really intriguing, posing some interesting moral questions and paying off story threads planted throughout a number of the previous films. And it builds to a climax where the feeling of dread that had been building in the pit of my stomach throughout left me emotionally drained at the film's ending.

12. The Get Down Season 1 What a blast! The history of hip hop in the Bronx presented as a super-hero-origin musical Baz Luhrmann fantasia. It may not be accurate, and it may be a Luhrmanny mash of ideas and characters, but I loved it and I'm excited to see the rest of it when it goes up on Netflix.

11. 10 Cloverfield Lane The trailer for this movie could have been on this list by itself, both because it is a fantastic trailer and because the revelation of the title at the end of it was a genuine surprise. And then the movie itself turned out to be equally fantastic. Mary Elizabeth Winstead kills it, and John Goodman gives an incredible performance. If they turn out movies like this, they've got me onboard this Cloverfield thing for a good long while.

10. "One Trek Mind" Panel at Star Trek: Mission New York I went to my first Star Trek convention this year! I had a great time, and on the morning of the last day I went to my favorite event of the weekend. The panel was really just moderator Jordan Hoffman hosting a discussion with the audience with the goal of selecting the ideal crew from all iterations of Trek. You can hear it here, but the experience of being in the big hall as the debate was waged was something else. The audience was really engaged, it was a delight to see folks argue their picks (a group of young girls who came up to advocate Dr. Crusher was a particular highlight), and the way the crowd rallied behind Captain Janeway was freaking thrilling. And seriously, this thing was bonkers. Just look at that picture.

9. "Hallelujah" on Saturday Night Live Like a lot of folks, I was pretty surprised and upset by the results of the 2016 presidential election. And as much as I love Saturday Night Live (and I do! I could have gladly put Kevin Roberts, David Pumpkins, or this Russel Crowe sketch among many others), I was dreading the first episode after the election. I was in no mood to see some wan jokes about Donald Trump yukking it up in the White House or painting the walls gold or something, so I was particularly dreading the cold open, the kick-off sketch of the show and the traditional spot for a political sketch. I was surprised, then, to see this performance, done as tribute to both Hillary Clinton and the recently departed Leonard Cohen. Whatever I expected from that opening sketch, it wasn't to be moved to tears. But while it was a small thing, I found it cathartic.

8. Vice Principals Season 1 I wrote about this show for SportsAlcohol.com. And I'll just say that after that stunner of a final episode, I can't wait for the next season.

7. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them/Harry Potter and the Cursed Child This year marked J.K. Rowling's return to her wizard world, and I really loved it. I'm super on-board with the idea of her telling stories in that world in a different format (in this case a play and a film, instead of a new novel), allowing the seven existing books to stand as they are. I found Cursed Child intriguing and moving (and I'd really love to see it onstage), a lovely extended epilogue to Harry's story. And I loved Fantastic Beasts. I found the new characters instantly endearing, the world building and intimations of story in the world around them pretty exciting, and I adored the final moments of the film. Really into following along with whatever else she's cooking up along these lines.

6. Zootopia/Moana I loved Finding Dory, but this year Walt Disney Animation Studios really brought their A-game. Zootopia was a wonderful surprise, thoughtful and engrossing, and Moana proved about as adept as Frozen in getting me to well up with emotion throughout. Both films were hilarious, gorgeous, and exciting. What a great year for Disney fans.

5. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 2 I wrote about this for SportsAlcohol.com.

4. The Fits What a wonderful, special little movie. It weaves a powerful, mysterious spell, and I really loved it. I don't want to talk too much about it if you haven't seen it, but I'd definitely recommend it.

3. The Nice Guys Russell Crowe is a freaking delight and Ryan Gosling gives probably my favorite performance of his yet, but the tremendous pleasure of this film pretty much comes down to Shane Black. It's the Shane Black special, with clever and unexpected plot turns, hilarious dialogue, terrific characters, and just a real cool vibe. On the shelf along with Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang as a movie I'd happily watch any time.

2. Stranger Things Season 1 I'd been following this since it was announced as Montauk and all that was known about it was that it starred Winona Ryder and might have an Amblin-y vibe. So I wasn't so much surprised by its existence as I was by how successfully it was what it attempted to be. Like the greatest Stephen King miniseries that never existed, it was involving and atmospheric, and I just loved it. And it stuck the landing so well that I'm equally excited for the next season and wary of them opening up an ending I loved.

1. Shin Godzilla I wrote a bunch about this one for SportsAlcohol.com.

Top Twenty Things I’m Excited About in 2017

Kong: Skull Island I'm down for a King Kong movie at any time, but the posters and trailers for this one have been so great that I worry my expectations are impossibly high. Can't. Wait.

War for the Planet of the Apes The other two films in this revival Apes series were genuinely great. Everything I've read about this one has been really intriguing, and the teaser was excellent.

Baby Driver Edgar Wright's new movie! He's four for four, and it's almost four years since The World's End came out. It was kind of a toss-up whether I was gonna put Baby Driver or Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled or A Cure for Wellness, the new Gore Verbinski movie, on here. Or even Colossal, Nacho Vigalondo's kaiju film. Really excited about all of them, but I think Baby Driver might top the list.

Okja Bong Joon-Ho has a new movie coming this year. That's enough to warrant my excitement, but it's also got an interesting cast and some kind of monster or giant creature. This is also a Netflix release, and they've also got Duncan Jones's Mute and Jeremy Saulnier's Hold the Dark, so they're really earning my subscription fee.

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara Spielberg directs a new screenplay by Tony Kushner. I'm there.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi I am riding high on Star Wars love, and this year is going to have plenty to keep me afloat. More Star Wars: Rebels, more great Marvel comics, a handful of novels, and finally at the end of the year, the new adventure with Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo Ren, and Luke Skywalker! Written and directed by Rian Johnson! Holy smokes!

Blade Runner 2049 Really cool teaser, an interesting director, cool cast, and now I'm really into this one. And honestly, I’d be intrigued by a sequel to Blade Runner no matter what.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales AND Beauty and the Beast For all the hemming and hawing I do beforehand about these live-action adaptations of Disney's animated classics, I've been pretty into all of them after seeing them. And Beauty and the Beast looks great. I also adore the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and I found the fourth one disappointing and I still kind of like it. So I'm pretty psyched that the new one promises a return to form, with an exciting directing duo and a couple of beautiful teasers.

The Mummy I still have intensely mixed feelings about this whole approach to reviving the Universal Monsters, but I've really liked some of what I've read in interviews with Kurtzman, and the teaser for this one was intriguing. Who am I kidding? I'll be there for this.

God Particle This may be the next Cloverfield movie, and even if it isn't, it's got a terrific cast and an intriguing premise, so I'm into it.

Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2017 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Spider-Man: Homecoming both start out with a lot of goodwill on my part (both general Marvel Studios goodwill and based on the original Guardians and the new Spider-Man's appearance in Captain America: Civil War). The Guardians ads have been spectacular so far, and the Spider-Man trailer pressed the right buttons for me. On top of that, this fall we get Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok, which I'm already too excited about and I haven't seen a single frame. There's also Iron Fist and The Defenders due on Netflix, the continuation of the current season of Agents of Shield (which I'm really enjoying), and a few other potential TV projects like the IMAX/television Inhumans. I feel pretty safe that the MCU won't be slowing down for me this year. (And it's not Marvel Studios, but Logan looks great.)

Coco A new, original Pixar movie! Of course I'm excited. (Note: I'm even into seeing what they're up to with their Rocky III sounding Cars 3, so there's no chance I'd miss their fall offering.)

Riverdale Another one where I'm equally excited and afraid. In any case, I'm super interested to see how this works, so they've got me for the season!

The Leftovers Final Season The final season of a show that moved me like very works of art ever have. Not sure what to expect or even what I want from it, but I'm definitely looking forward to it. HBO is also serving up final seasons for Girls and Vice Principals, so I guess it's a good year for me to get super excited about the ends of shows I've loved.

Star Trek: Discovery I am going to subscribe to CBS's streaming service for the months this show is airing. That's how excited I am for it.

Twin Peaks Like Blade Runner, it is so strange that this is coming out and stranger still that it's in a form that is so exciting in its own right. Lynch directing (and co-writing with Mark Frost) like eighteen hours of new Twin Peaks! I genuinely don't know what to expect from it, but I'm excited.

Fourth Cormoran Strike Novel After a thoroughly enjoyable year of new Wizarding World material, I'm also anxiously awaiting news about J.K. Rowling releasing a new Robert Galbraith mystery this year.

Stranger Things 2 I really loved the first season, and as much as I think it ended perfectly and am kind of wary about them following up with a sequel, they built up a lot of goodwill and trust with me the first time around. And that teaser for the second season (and the episode titles they released) pretty easily override any doubts.

Olaf's Frozen Adventure It's a Frozen Christmas special from Walt Disney Animation Studios. Up. My. Alley.

The Fate of the Furious Of course I'm psyched for this. But it would be on this list over some others stuff I'm excited about for the perfect genius of the title alone.

0 notes